Latch assemblies for motor vehicles are generally well-known in the art. In most motor vehicles, a hood is used to enclose the engine or luggage compartment of the motor vehicle. Such hoods are typically situated so as to be opened from the front of the vehicle and hinged along a rearward edge, such that the hood opens from the front of the vehicle. The hood is typically equipped with one or more strikers attached to the lower surface near the forward edge of the hood. The striker is situated to interact and to be restrained by the latch assembly attached to the motor vehicle chassis, likewise located proximate the forward edge of the hood. A latch release handle is often situated in the occupant compartment, typically near the driver's side kick panel or under the instrument panel. The handle may be connected via a Bowden cable to a latch release lever operatively connected to a primary hood latch of the latch assembly. Upon actuation of the hood release handle in the occupant compartment, the Bowden cable pulls on the latch release lever, thereby releasing the striker from the primary hood latch of the latch assembly. At this point, a spring assembly may be used to urge the hood upwardly to a partially open position at a pre-determined height, typically about 50-75 mm (or about 2-3 inches), and is held to this position by a secondary hood latch.
Such secondary hood latches are provided to mitigate inadvertent release of the primary hood latch handle or failure of the primary hood latch while the vehicle is in motion, which may cause the hood to abruptly rise due to wind pressure. Rather, the secondary hood latch requires an operator standing in front of the vehicle to manually operate the secondary hood latch to free the hood striker from the secondary hood latch of the latch assembly, thereby allowing the hood to be fully raised, providing access to the engine within the engine compartment and/or luggage within the luggage compartment.
Thus, in the context of latch assemblies having primary and secondary hood latches, after the operator pulls the primary hood latch release lever from inside the passenger compartment, the hood is released from engagement with the primary hood latch and moved to a secondary hood latch release position. The operator then must move to the front of the vehicle in close proximity to the hood, where the operator must then search for and locate a secondary hood latch release handle by inserting his or her fingers under the partially opened hood and then actuate the handle left or right (or up or down, depending the vehicle design) to release the secondary hood latch. The hood can then be fully opened, either manually or through some other assist mechanism, such as gas cylinders or torsion springs.
The location of the secondary hood latch release handle varies significantly from vehicle to vehicle. Particularly to an operator unfamiliar with the motor vehicle he or she may be operating, the secondary hood latch release handle can be frustratingly difficult to locate by touch alone. It is often difficult to see through the narrow, partial opening of the hood, particularly in poorly lit areas or at night. Hence, a latch assembly which overcomes these drawbacks would be advantageous.
The hood latch disclosed herein particularly accomplishes the foregoing by adapting the present typical motor vehicle hood latch assembly described above through the use of a secondary hood latch having a locking hook at a first distal end disposed to selectively engage the striker and an externally actuated release pawl disposed at an opposite second distal end of the secondary hood latch. A longitudinally extending actuator operatively coupled with a push button assembly provides a rearwardly facing inclined cam surface that selectively engages the release pawl of the secondary hood latch to move the secondary hood latch to a release position when a push button to displaced rearwardly within the push button assemble, thereby allowing the operator to fully raise the hood.
Thus, the solution presented by the present disclosure obviates the need for the operator to insert his or her fingers under the partially opened hood to actuate and release the secondary hood latch, providing for convenient and confident actuation of the secondary hood latch release handle.